Enzo Maresca hopes Chelsea will have Cole Palmer back from injury this month to face Barcelona in the Champions League and Arsenal.
Chelsea host Barca on November 25 and then Arsenal five days later, live on Sky Sports, with Palmer yet to return to training after suffering a groin injury in September.
Palmer has missed the last nine matches and also won’t take part in their Champions League fixture against Qarabag on Wednesday. Head coach Maresca said on October 17 that his star player would be out for around six weeks.
On whether Palmer would be fit to face Barcelona after the international break, Maresca said on Tuesday: “We hope so but with Cole, we try to schedule the beginning and then we need to review that.
“We go day by day with Cole. He is not taking any sessions with the team.
“We have Benoit Badiashile that can probably be available after the international break and for us, that is huge news.
Cole Palmer (right) speaks with Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca after injuring his groin in September
“To be honest, I would like to have Cole here tomorrow. We’d like to have Cole every game. I’ve said many times that we are a better team with Cole. Unfortunately for us it’s out, it’s injury, but for sure we want him back very soon.”
Pedro Neto did not take part in training on Tuesday and won’t be involved against Qarabag due to a “small issue”.
Neto played 85 minutes during Chelsea’s 1-0 win at Tottenham on Saturday although won’t be risked for the trip to Azerbaijan on Wednesday.
Maresca said: “Not a problem, just a small issue. So we try to protect him.”
Maresca was confident Neto would make a quick return but was less positive about Dario Essugo.
“He’s still out for a while, probably, I don’t know if the new year, January, December, January. Not sure yet, but we are already in November,” said Maresca.
“Moi [Caicedo] is doing well. We have also Romeo [Lavia] that is covering that position. We have Andrey Santos that is covering that position.
“In some moment, we’ll also use Josh [Acheampong], we’ll use Reece [James]. We try, as we always said, we try to find a solution when we miss players.”
